The Kyoto Prize is the highest private award in Japan, and is handed out annually to people who have made noteworthy accomplishments. The Inamori Foundation selects nominators for three different categories (Advanced Technology, Basic Sciences and Arts and Philosophy), and these groups nominate those prescreened candidates whom they think deserve the prize. The prize includes a certificate, a gold medal, 50 million yen (about US $400,000) and more than enough dignity to fill a large swimming pool (the last of these simply because the Kyoto Prize is the Japanese equivalent of a Nobel prize).

Past winners include Donald Knuth at Stanford in 1996 for lifetime achievement in his studies in computer science, and Edward Lorenz in 1991 for the mathematic (well, chaos mostly) modelling of weather systems.

Do they offer a Kyoto prize for rescuing nodeshells?
References
The Kyoto Prize Laureates Selection. <http://www.inamori-f.or.jp/KyotoPrizes/contents_e/co_scr.html>

Salisbury, David. Donald Knuth Wins Kyoto Prize. Stanford: Stanford Today Online, 1996. <http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/stanfordtoday/ed/9609/9609smf201.shtml>

Lorenz Receives 1991 Kyoto Prize. Cambridge: MIT News Office, 1991. <http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/tt/1991/24996/24998.html>